I Play Sports Now!

Hi Everyone!  Hope you had a great weekend! I needed to unplug this weekend, although I miss not posting when I do! 

But, I had a fun time hanging out with the husband and daughters and the weather was beautiful so we got in a lot of outdoor activity.  I was able to get in both my runs – Saturday was 2 miles and Sunday was 3 miles.  After my runs, I joined the hubs and daughters for soccer drills and basketball. SO FUN!!! 

The best line of the weekend comes from the husband:  I can’t believe you play sports now;  this is great!!!

Yes, it’s true.  And I can’t believe it either!  I have never been one for playing sports.  Throughout my entire childhood, I hated sports.  With a capital H.   I especially hated gym class.  I always felt like the biggest, clumsiest and most uncoordinated girl in the class.  I felt embarassed and often feigned illness so I could sit on the sidelines.  It makes me sad to think that I may have missed out on so many good times, but I can’t get those years back.  Now, there will be no more sitting on the sidelines for me!  I’m not saying I will try out for some women’s sport team (I’m still laughably uncoordinated!), but I can run around with my family;  up and down the basketball court, back and forth on the soccer field and not feel like I’m going to die of a heart attack.  Being healthy and fit feels fantastic!

Before all of this outdoor fun, I started off with some tasty eats.  I have not been feeling breakfast at all lately.  Nothing seems to excite me and I'd happily eat a Chobani every morning, but I know that gets boring after a while.  I rummaged around and found this box of Triple Berry Bran Muffin Mix from Trader Joe’s and thought it would be a nice change…

These guys are hi –test!  One little muffin packs some serious fiber…

They contain a blend of whole wheat flour, wheat and oat bran, rolled oats, ground flaxseed, cranberries, blueberries, raspberries and some spices.  You need only add eggs and water and bake…

Perfect with coffee…

After church, we stopped home for lunch.  I was getting pretty hungry, but didn’t want to overdo it before my run.  I settled on a Health is Wealth Chicken Free Patty on an Ezekiel Hamburger Bun with a slice of asiago and spinach and a sweet Gala…

I let that digest a bit, then it was off to the trail/park.  The training schedule called for 3 miles and part way into the first mile, I was wondering if I was going to make it!  My legs felt weak and sluggish, but as soon as I hit the end of the first mile, I talked myself into the rest and finished stronger and faster than how I started out.  Why is that first 10 minutes so rough sometimes?!

We came home near dinner time and we were all starving from our outdoor fun.  Pasta was on my brain!  I made Angel hair with Ricotta, Zucchini and Asparagus.  My serving was huge…

Trust me, there was a ton of angel hair under those veggies!

I was full, but couldn’t help snagging a few more forkfuls while clearing the table because it’s pasta and I have a hard time with a “normal” serving of that!

Before I go, I wanted to share a few things with you all.  First, this coming week marks my One Year Blogiversary!!!  Wow, I can’t believe it’s  been a year!  I have a special GIVEAWAY planned of lots of goodies from my favorite place/home away from home (can you guess?), so stay tuned for that!  Also, I have some changes to the blog in the works.  It’s been a long time coming and I’m so excited about it!  There is so much more I would like to do here and I’m looking forward to being able to add more of my personal touches(recipes pages, FAQ’s, etc.) to the blog.  I am humbled by the fact that you all come here to read and as much as I blog for myself, I also try to provide information that you would be interested in hearing about or seeing.  As I’ve said before, I am always open to suggestions, so if there is anything that you would like to see more of (or less of – like my dopey attempt at trying to be funny!), please feel free to let me know!

Have a great day, everyone!

Up And Moving: No Candy Required

It’s so nice to get up with the sun!  Love the time change for the morning, although getting dark by 5:30 p.m. kinda stinks.  Oh well, can’t win ‘em all!

The daughters were off from school today, so it was a nice relaxing morning in the pj’s for us.  I took advantage of the extra time to make a bowl of Pumpkin Oat Bran…

• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
• splash of Silk Heart Health Vanilla Soymilk
• 2 tbsp. walnuts
• 1 tbsp. homemade almond butter

Delicious and very filling.  The addition of almond butter made it!

After breakfast, I got in a good amount of organizing and decluttering in various rooms.  It all accumulates so fast!  Especially books and magazines!

Lunch happened earlier than I thought.  The oat bran was filling, but didn’t hold me over as long as it has before.  Oh well, I ran with it and fixed up a leftover turkey sandwich on an Ezekiel Hamburger Bun with spinach.  The star of the sammie was this awesome mustard…

 

It wasn’t as zesty as Zesty!  But, it was the perfect compliment to the turkey sandwich, as were the POPchips and crunchy Gala…

Later, while I was packing up the mounds of Halloween candy, I had a little treat…

Then carried on along my merry way, pinching my nose so as to not be enticed by the smell of this…

or this…

Yes, you can smell it through the wrapper.  Uh huh.  Have I mentioned that I hate Halloween?  Yes?  Okay, moving on…

While little daughter was at dance, I decided to hit the gym for a quick run.  I wanted to do 3 miles today, but knew I probably wouldn’t be able to fit it into my 30 minute time frame.  I tried pumping up my speed, but it left me a little too winded, so I  resigned myself to the 2 miles and walked the rest at a 10% mountain climbing incline.  It felt great!

Dinner was prepped (me) and in the oven while I was gone (thanks, big daughter!), so a yummy cheesy Lasagna was waiting when we came home.  I wasn’t in the mood for it , though, plus I made it extra cheesy for the family and I didn’t think it was worth the splurge.  I decided on a Salmon Roulette with a drizzle of pesto, leftover roasted potatoes and veggies…

I’m turning into the Leftover Queen!  It’s my secret way of cleaning out the fridge :)

I ended the night with a decaf soy latte:  decaf coffee and Silk Heart Health Vanilla Soymilk…

Candy?  What candy?  Yep, I can say that now.  I am so over it.  Who needs it?  Nope, not me!  Whew!  Now to brace myself for Christmas cookies!!!  Aaaaah!!!!

ONE GOOD THING:  I’m back to running again and I love it!  So far, so dizziness and no major hip issues.  I’m going to try out a pre-5K training schedule which I’ll post about tomorrow.  I like pushing my body a little to see what it can do!

Have a great day all!

The Heart Of The Home

Back to the grind!  We were up and at ‘em early to try and finish up the last painting touches and put the kitchen back together.  We had to make another quick trip to the Lowe’s,  but first some breakfast was in order.  I was in the mood for eggs, so I whipped up a Salsa Egg White Scramble (egg whites, spinach, salsa and light cheddar)…

Then, it was off to pick up our hardwares.  Since, Trader Joe’s was right around the corner, I talked the husband into a pit stop to pick up a couple items.  I scored a cool new (to me) hummus that I couldn’t wait to have with lunch…

I thought it would make a great topping for my Cuban Black Bean Patty on an Ezekiel hamburger bun…

It was perfect!  I liked the smoky flavor and the mild heat.  Definitely a keeper!

We finally finished up the last of the retouching and put the kitchen back in working order.  Only glitch was with the lighting over the table.  Seems our compact fluorescents were too big and stuck out above the shades.  I had to run back out and get smaller bulbs, but other than that, this repainting/updating job went pretty smoothly.  And the husband and I worked really well together, so no divorce papers needed to be drawn up after this project ;)

The daughters came home as we were finished and were so surprised at the change!  They loved it, though, which made me happy since the kitchen is the heart of our home and I want everyone to be comfortable in it.

I decided on an easy dinner.  I wasn’t quite ready to cook after the long, tiring weekend, so we fired up the grill and made some of these cool dogs I found at Trader Joe’s…

I haven’t had a hot dog in ages because of the high fat content of the regular ones and I found the light ones to be okay, but I question the “healthiness” of them.  However, I saw these Applegate Farms Organic Uncured Beef Hot Dogs and the “organic” and “no nitrates or preservatives” made me feel a little better about them!  Hey, it’s un-American to not eat a hot dog, right?!  Anyway, I was surprised by the nutritional information considering these are not touted as a “light” hot dog.  One dogger is 70 calories with only 4.5 grams of fat!  That’s impressive.  Can’t get away from the sodium though – 430 mg., but that’s how a hot dog rolls ;P  Speaking of rolls, I ate my dog on a whole wheat roll with a squirt of straight up yellow mustard along with a side salad and some baked fries….

I loved this hot dog!!!  Seriously good;  even the husband gave it a thumbs up.  Now, the fries…eh, not so lovely.  I bought these Alexia Yukon Gold fries and had high expectations…

The nutritionals looked good…

but the flavor was meh and some of the fries were hollow inside when you bit into them.  Somehow, the precooking process they do, cooks the potato right out of it!  Not a fan :(

All in all, a tasty dinner in our “new” kitchen.  Wanna see it???  Here’s a mini tour…

Looks good now;  I’m sure I’ll mess it up soon enough!

I ended the night with another Trader Joe’s find:  Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites…

A serving is 8 cookies for 130 calories and 6 grams fat.  They are made with whole wheat flour, oats and walnut meal.  Good ingredients and delicious!  I was satisfied with just 3 because they have such great flavor.   Just right…

Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend!

ONE GOOD THING:  I was able to enjoy cookies without feeling like I had to eat the whole serving or container for that matter- LOL!  I ate what satisfied me and put them away.

Question of the Day:  What room do you consider to be the “heart of your home” ?

Eating In Two’s

Hey, everyone!  It’s been a crazy busy weekend and I’ve got some catching up to do, so I’ll get right to it…

Friday morning started off with a buzz.  With no time for a “proper” breakfast, I decided to grab and eat in the car.  On the way to the gym, I chomped on a Clif Mini Bar…I like brownies in the morning ;)…

I decided to try out the “less and longer” exercise strategy with 1 hour on the recumbent bike.  I didn’t “feel” like I worked out, yet my back was sweaty when I left, so I guess it did something.  And thanks for commenting on the “less is more” vs. “pump your heart out”.  I liked hearing your experiences and some of you brought up some really good points about high intensity interval training.  I’ll definitely look into that more, too.

After the gym, I ate part two of my breakfast…

in about two seconds.  I’m really sucking at taking my time and acknowledging what I am eating.

That held me over for about two more seconds.   Well, really longer than that, but I was ready for lunch very early (11:45).  I had lots of running around to do, so I figured, why fight it?  I heated up a Cuban Black Bean Patty and put it on a hearty Ezekiel Hamburger Bun with guacamole and salsa.  DELISH!

I definitely needed some munch, so I paired it with a serving of Trader Joe’s Sea Salt and Pepper Rice Crisps …love ‘em…

Then, I was missing a fruit, so I grabbed a nectarine while heading out the door…

I ran around getting some last minute things for the husband’s birthday dinner (Sat.), came home and starting prepping.  I needed sustenance;   something to get me through this harrowing afternoon of food preparation.  I decided on …

Okay, this technically doesn’t qualify as nourishment , but they sure were delicious!  They are thin crisps (think Pringles chip) with puffed rice pieces in it to give you that Nestle Crunch bar feel.   They’re not too bad in the calorie department, either…

I had one…

then, another…

These have “stop the insanity” written all over them.  Consider yourself warned :)

I had late dinner plans with my two best buds and knew if I didn’t eat something beforehand, I would devour the bread basket as soon as it hit the table.  I chose a better form of nourishment this time…

That did the trick!  I met up with my girls at a cool restaurant called Spence Cafe.  We were seated and hit the menu right away…

Actually, we hit up the wine first ;)

We started with an antipasto platter with veggies and Maytag blue cheese stuffed artichoke hearts…

and an assorted cheese plate with fruit and toasted baguette…

My plate…loved the cranberry pistachio cheese!

For my entree, I chose from the Light Fare portion of the menu.  I opted for the Eggplant Napoleon with sauteed spinach, mozzarella and ricotta fritter and tomato coulis.  It was anything but “light”.  Other than the 'fritter’ part, I wasn’t expecting this to be a “fried” dish, but , alas, this is what came…

I ate the spinach, half the fritters and half the eggplant.  I was satisfied, but I hate when you don’t get what you expect.  You think you’re making a good choice, then BAM!  Note to self : ask how something is prepared even though you hate to do that and think it’s a pain.

I had a great time catching up with my girls.  We are all so busy and it takes forever to schedule a night out, but when we do, it’s always fun!

I plopped in bed way past my bedtime, but thankfully fried food makes you feel like crap and I fell into a deep fat coma.  Nice :D

ONE GOOD THING:  Spending time with my good friends!!!

I’ll be back later for a recap of hubby’s bday! 

Just Be Myself

Hey all!  Weekend go okay?  It was so nice here.  I had intended on going for a walk or maybe doing some Pilates as my “rest day” activity, but ended up doing NADA!  Oh well!  I have to say that my hip is thanking me for it.  I gave it a nice recoup time this weekend and it feels a lot better!  So instead of working out, I worked around the house cleaning and catching up on laundry. I worked up an appetite for breakfast and stopped for an old fave of Trader Joe’s High Fiber O’s, strawberries and skim milk…

More cleaning and laundry.  We live like pigs, I’ve decided.  Or maybe our dog is really disguised as a pig.  I don’t know, it was just a mess around here!

I finally got things in semi-order and settled in to make lunch.  I was craving a wrap, mainly because I found these cool new (to me) Joseph’s Lavash Bread (found them in BJ’s)…

They are huge!  A serving is a half, but with these great stats, eating a whole one is no biggie…

I made a basic turkey and asiago cheese with lettuce, tomato and dijon mustard and had a super sweet Fuji apple on the side “for dessert”…

I really wanted to have some time to sit this afternoon.  I’ve been thinking a lot lately that I don’t take time to “just be”.  Everything is so fast;  the day flies by and I have a million things in my head about what I should be doing, what I want to do, where I need to go, etc.  My mind is never quiet.  I’m feeling unfocused, maybe even a little unnerved because of it.  Even if it’s just 5 minutes to STOP.  BREATHE.  LISTEN.  That’s all I’m asking of myself.  Did I do it?  NO!  Too many distractions.  But, it’s a goal I have for this week!

My Mom, Dad and Gram came over later in the day to hang out and have Sunday dinner with us.  It was so nice out, we decided on squeaking out the last days of grilling time.  I made burgers on the grill served on “healthy” Ezekiel Hamburger Buns and white, fluffy kaiser buns for the protesters to healthiness (you know who they are ;)…

Some sweet potato fries…

a big green salad…

and Gram brought her Zucchini Quiche, too…

My plate…

Mmmm…my burger with some fixins…

It was a fun time with healthy eats!  The Ezekiel buns were a hit and so filling that I didn’t even finish my burger!  Unheard of!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

ONE GOOD THING:  I respected my body and took time off to let it recoup from my hard workout week.

Question of the Day:  Do you take time during the day to “just be”?